Finding and referencing images: Referencing images

Introduction

In this guide, 'IMAGE' is used to refer to any visual resource such as a diagram, graph, illustration, design, photograph, or video. They may be found in books, journals, reports, web pages, online video, DVDs and other kinds of media. This guide also refers to ‘CREATOR’. This could be an illustrator, photographer, author or organisation.

The examples are presented in Harvard (Bath) style and offer general guidelines on good practice. For essays, project reports, dissertations and theses, ask your School or Department which style they want you to use. Different referencing styles require the use of similar information but will be formatted differently. For more information on other referencing styles, visit our referencing guide.

Using images to illustrate or make clear the description and discussion in your text is useful, but it is important that you give due recognition to the work of other people that you present with your own. This will help to show the value of their work to your assignment and how your ideas fit with a wider body of academic knowledge.

It is just as important to properly cite and reference images as it is the journal articles, books and other information sources that you draw upon. If you do not, you could find yourself accused of plagiarism and/or copyright infringement.

Using images and copyright

For educational assignments it is sufficient to cite and reference any image used. If you publish your work in any way, including posting online, then you will need to follow copyright rules. It is your responsibility to find out whether, and in what ways, you are permitted to use an image in your coursework or publications. Please refer to our copyright guidance and ask for further assistance if you are unsure.

Some images are given limited rights for reuse by their creators. This is likely to be accompanied with a requirement to give recognition to their work and may limit the extent to which it can be modified. The ‘Creative Commons’ copyright licensing scheme offers creators a set of tools for telling people how they wish their work to be used. You can find out more about the different kinds of licence, and what they mean, on the organisation’s web pages.

What is a caption?

Any image that you use should be given a figure number and a brief description of what it is. Permission for use of an image in a published work should be acknowledged in the figure caption. Some organisations will require the permission statement to be given exactly as they specify. If they are required, permissions need to be stated in addition to the citing and referencing guidance given below.

Referencing images in PowerPoint slides

For a presentation you should include a brief citation under the image. Keep a reference list to hand (e.g. hidden slide) for questions. Making a public presentation or posting it online is publishing your work. You must include your references and observe permission and copyright rules.

For a large piece of work such as a dissertation, thesis or report, a list of figures may be required at the front of the work after the contents page. Check with your department for information on specific requirements of your work.

When referencing an image found via Google you need to make sure that the information included in your reference relates to the original website that your search has found. Click on the image within the results to get to the original website and take your reference information from there. Take care to use credible sources with good quality information.

If you use an image from a web page, blog or an online photograph gallery you should reference the individual image. Cite the image creator in the caption and year of publication. The creator may be different from the author of the web page or blog. They may be individual people or an organisation. Figure 2 below gives an example of an image with a corporate author:

Figure 2. NASA Astronaut Tim Kopra on Dec. 21 Spacewalk (NASA, 2015)

List the image reference within your references list at the end of your work, using the format:

If you want to reference an image included in a Wikipedia article, double-click on the image to see all the information needed for your reference. This will open a new page containing information such as creator, image title, date and specific URL. The format should be:

Creator, Year. Title [Online]. Place of Publication: Publisher. Available from: URL [Accessed date].

If you wish to cite a YouTube video in your text, the information you need to provide for citation is in the format:

(Account holder, Year posted)

In this case ‘ACCOUNT HOLDER’ is used to mean the person who owns the YouTube page. They may not be the creator of the video. If the name of the person or organisation is not clear then the YouTube ‘screen name’ can be used. Similar principles apply for other video services.

The full reference to include in your reference list is in the format:

Account holder, Year Posted. Title of video [Online]. Available from: URL [Accessed date].

University of Bath, 2015. What is engineering? [Online]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoyZarq-Zbo [Accessed 12 January 2016].

Whilst it is acceptable to reference a YouTube video that has been uploaded by the person or organisation that created it you need to consider its credibility and its source. You should be especially careful about accuracy of information when an uploaded video has been copied from elsewhere. It may have been edited or modified in some way. Where possible go to the source of a commercial TV or film production such as the official website or DVD version for full information.

Anon., 1946. Prototype electric bicycle displayed at the 'Britain Can Make It' exhibition organised by the Councilof Industrial Design and held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1946. Designed by B. G. Bowden [Photograph]. At: London. Design Council Slide Collection.

In this example the designer of the bicycle and the source of the image need to be acknowledged, however the photographer is unknown. The caption would be:

Figure 3. Prototype electric bicycle displayed at the 'Britain can make it' exhibition organised by the Council of Industrial Design and held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1946. Designed by B. G. Bowden (Anon., 1946).

If you take a photograph, you do not have to reference it. For sake of clarity you may want to add “Image by author” to the caption. If you create an original illustration or a diagram that you have produced from your own idea then you do not have to cite or reference them. If you generate an image from a graphics package, for example a molecular structure from chemistry drawing software, you do not need to cite the source of the image.

If you use someone else’s work for an image then you must give them due credit. If you reproduce it by hand or using graphics software it is the same as if you printed, scanned or photocopied it. You must cite and reference the work as described in this guide. If the image is something that you have created in an earlier assignment or publication you need to reference earlier piece of work to avoid self-plagiarism. If you want to annotate information to improve upon, extend or change an existing image you must cite the original work. However, you would use the phrase ‘adapted from’ in your citation and reference the original work in your reference list.

Online images and resources for your work

The library has compiled a list of useful audio-visual resources, including images, that can be used for essays or assignments. Visit the 'finding images and videos' tab of this guide to find out more.